


Working Solo

by starri



Category: B.A.P, K-pop
Genre: Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Crimes & Criminals, Multi, Sass, Spies & Secret Agents
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-27
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-04-23 17:49:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4886047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starri/pseuds/starri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jongup slips a necklace around Junhong’s neck. “There,” he smiles, “Now we are boyfriends fighting for equality rights.”</p><p>“Remind me,” Daehyun interrupts dryly “why are we doing this again? The kid’s a civilian for crying out loud. Why can’t me and the Moonchild here, you know, <i>the actual agents</i>, go undercover?”</p><p>“Because you hate each other.” Youngjae says without even bothering to look up from his laptop.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> heavily inspired but very loosely based on One Shot MV and Guy Ritchie's The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 
> 
> because Guy Ritchie is a genius. 
> 
>  
> 
> also sort of my second entry for bap.bingo spies prompt.

“I’ll be right with you.” The pair of legs sticking out from under the car informs Daehyun as he steps into the repair shop.

“Choi Junhong-ssi” Daehyun greets, keeping his voice low and honeyed.

The sound of soldering stops, and the legs slide out and reveal a lanky young man looking confused. Very confused. Much too confused for the situation, which tells Daehyun everything he needs to know.

“I’m sorry, we do not have a mechanic by that nam-“

“Zelo, then.” Daehyun smiles wide and happy, and sprawls himself over one of the vacant chairs. He nods towards the name tag stuck to the young man’s overalls “Nice to meet you. I’m Daehyun.”

“Can I help you?” Zelo asks cautiously.

“How about a story?” Daehyun opens his suitcase and pulls out a file. “-about a Choi Junhong-ssi. You see, a man named Bang Yongguk has been found to be the common connection between several suspected, ah, shall we say, powerful dealers in illegality. But, the thing about Bang Yongguk is - no one has seen or heard from him for four years, and his family and friends insist that he died overseas. And you know whats the _damnest_ thing?”

He pauses for dramatic effect, waving the file airily so Zelo can catch a glance of the surveillance photos attached to the top of them – and a small metal device falls out of the creases of the file folder.

He stares at it for a few seconds.

“Daehyun-ssi?” Zelo prompts, pretending he’s not edging towards the work bench.

“The damnest thing, is that one of his closest friends – one Choi Junhong-ssi also disappeared at that time, and yet here you are, apparently unharmed in the Fillipines.” Daehyun finishes, but his heart isn’t in it anymore. He picks up the tracker and drops it into one of the cans of waste oil. It makes a satisfying _glub glub_ sound.

He looks back up at Zelo.

“Junhong-ssi, please put down that wrench and consider the fact that I am tasked to keep you out of harm’s way and reunite you with your Yongguk hyung. However, whoever is tracking me, and therefore you, might not be so kind.” He walks over to one of the cars, holds open the door and flashes the frowning young man his most winning smile. “How about we go for a drive?”

Daehyun can almost see Junhong making up his mind. He puts down the wrench and approaches reluctantly, but just as he is about to step past Daehyun into the car, he leans close and blinks his large eyes pitifully at Daehyun.

“Daehyun-ssi. I have no one left in this world, but I try my best to live meaningfully. You’ll keep me safe, right?” and the kid demurely aims his eyes downward, then sneaks a glance back up at Daehyun before sitting himself in the driver’s seat.

Daehyun blinks. “Did you just try the helpless damsel thing on me to make me sympathetic and protective?”

“Who, me?” Junhong asks innocently, checks that Daehyun is strapped in, floors the gas pedal and accelerates the car to a hundred kilometers per hour in three seconds.

“You minx.” Daehyun comments lightly, half his attention on the sudden appearance of a sleek black car behind them.

He screws the silencer on his gun.


	2. Chapter 2

Daehyun’s debriefing for the extraction job was straightforward: an address, several photos. Go in, get out.

Some things were a bit strange though.

“So, no one has seen this Bang Yongguk for four years.” Daehyun picked up one of the photos, “Why is this picture of him labelled with this year’s date?”

“Oh, that’s the twin brother.” Youngjae cut in. “I thought we might as well have an idea of what he looks like.”

Daehyun tried really hard not to roll his eyes.

“I need a raise.”

“I’m your handler, not your boss.” Youngjae paused slightly. “I thought you don’t get paid.”

“Exactly.” Daehyun said mournfully.

 

 

“He’s a thief.”Was the first thing Jongup’s boss told him. “One of the best. He’s so good that he was caught completely by accident, over a misunderstanding involving three eggs, a camel and a Buddhist monk.”

Jongup nodded, pretending not to be curious.

“Due to his particular skill set, Intelligence offered him a job in exchange for his sentence.”

Jongup accepted the mug shot slid towards him, and placed it neatly next to the surveillance photos of his target. The man was good looking, in a dangerously suave kind of way, but on the edges a flash of fragility softened the sharp corners. Something about the tilt of his half-there smirk welcomed whispered secrets. Jongup could see why he appealed to Intelligence. The surveillance photos of the target look unbelievably innocent next to Jung Daehyun’s mug shot.

“Terminate him if necessary. Retrieval of Choi Junhong takes priority.”

Jongup nodded.

 

 

 

 

Daehyun’s debriefing was simple and straightforward, yet somehow, he’s not all that surprised that the extraction goes tits up faster than a backstroke swimmer. Working for the government is so utterly, tryingly, obtusely frustrating.

“You fucking said there isn’t going to be any fucking interference!” He yells at Youngjae, because Youngjae’s the only person he can yell at without altering what he already thought of Daehyun. It’s not exactly a comforting thought, but the knowledge is liberating; especially at times like this, when Daehyun has a lot of aggression to express explicitly.

Youngjae, as always, looks unimpressed. “I don’t compile your mission files. Also, you were in the gang ridden side of Davao. In a suit. And _silver earrings_. What exactly were you expecting?”

“That man is not from a Filipino street gang.” Daehyun says with a hundred percent certainty.

“How would you know?” Youngjae challenges. He’s peering at Daehyun with curiosity tingeing his usual aloof efficiency. Daehyun can almost believe that Youngjae actually cares, if the little brat would actually bother to stop typing while talking to Daehyun.

Daehyun briefly considers yelling again , but –

He sighs, dragging a note pad and pencil towards himself and begins sketching. “You should have seen him, Jae. His arms were amazing. They looked like someone put cantaloupes in a too small sack. And he’s so fucking fast. After the kid drove his car off the road, he chased us four blocks on foot. And then he ripped out the back of the car.”

Youngjae doesn’t even have the decency to look impressed, just a twitch of one eyebrow. Daehyun slides his finished sketch to Youngjae, who spares it a glance before going back to his laptop. “I’ll see what I can find. Any identifying marks?”

“No tats, from what I could see. There’s the birthmark on the nose.”

Youngjae hums. Daehyun taps the end of the pencil against the side of his leg distractedly. He should probably check on Junhong. Daehyun had a few speeches ready when it was time to put the kid into a secured hotel room – but the kid hadn’t needed convincing. If anything, he was way too accepting of the situation. When Daehyun left, glancing back suspiciously, Junhong was busy making himself a cup of tea.

Yeah, he should probably go check on the kid.

Daehyun is half way to the door when Youngjae calls out: “Oh yeah, Boss wants a word with you. Twenty-one-hundred, karaoke bar three streets west of your emergency rendezvous point."

“Boss-hyung or boss-noona?” Daehyun asks.

Youngjae gives him a look. “Um, no. Boss boss. Top-boss Deputy Director Park.”

“Oh.” Daehyun says, face carefully blank even as he feels his intestines freeze. “Shit. What did I do, do you know?”

“No idea. Though I heard in passing, something about assigning you a partner to handle the Bang Yongguk case.”

“Oh.” The peculiar feeling of his inner organs turning ice is reaching up towards his lungs now. “How great. Just what I need.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter was very rushed, I apologize for that.  
> I will go back and fix up the grammar of the first chapter later.


	3. Chapter 3

His emergency rendezvous point is on the edge of a depressingly middle class business district. Much like its occupants, the buildings look like too much money and effort has been put into the inappropriately lavish entrances and not enough into the mortar between cracking bricks. It’s not all that surprising that the crumbling buildings with wooden arches painted gold sprawl into the red light district. The karaoke bar that Daehyun is scheduled to meet with Boss Man is one of those ambiguous businesses that sells what it advertises and retain the shady, illegal side deals to populate it’s bloodstream like particularly leery viruses.

Daehyun is cheerfully propositioned by five working girls, two of them together, before he finds the right room.

“Deputy Director.” he greets with his best _‘I am a most loyal employee_ ’ voice.

Before he can continue onto waxing poetry about his impeccable work ethics though, their private room doors open, and Nose Dot walks in.

The man might be in club clothes and hiding behind an amicably confused smile, but Daehyun is not fooled. He can recognize those arms anywhere.

With a yell, he throws himself between the assassin and the Deputy Director in a suitably heroic gesture that is sure to earn him brownie points later but doesn’t actually cover any of the Deputy Director’s vitals – Just in case Nose Dot would like to do him the favour of terminating the cold bastard who is trying to extend Daehyun’s sentence behind his back and doesn’t even have the decency of being discrete about it.

Daehyun really hates working for the government.

Nose Dot just keeps smiling that disarmingly guileless smile. It only slips when, accompanied by another wordless yell, Daehyun bodily tackles Nose Dot and takes him down with both hand around the assassin’s throat.

That was the plan anyways. Nose Dot somehow gets him into an arm bar with embarrassing ease. Daehyun attempts to retaliate by elbowing the man in the dick, but his arm is sharply jerked up, and his elbow digs into Nose Dot’s gut instead.

Daehyun bruises his elbow on rock hard abs. What is this man even.

He is trying to put his nicely manicured nails to good use when another man walks into their private room. Daehyun mainly just sees a pair of very expensive oxfords, walking across his vision as his arm is being slowly but unmistakably worked out of its socket.

A new voice says “ _钟业，别第一天就把你的新大哥干掉。_ ”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Daehyun grunts, as his arm is immediately released.

“Mr. Huang said, ‘ _Jongup, don’t kill your new hyung on the first day._ ” The Deputy Director says dryly as he picks up a grape from their complementary fruit bowl.

“I know what he _said._ What does it _mean_?” Daehyun spits out from his spread-eagled position on the floor, trying to get blood back into this right arm.

Nose Dot Jongup, the little shit, just smiles apologetically and picks up the karaoke song-list. Daehyun watches - first in distaste, and then in growing horrified admiration - as the man begins to cheerfully input songs into the karaoke machine in front of the Deputy Director of Intelligence and the head of the Huang Shé crime syndicate.

“You two will be working together.” Deputy Director Park informs him through a mouthful of grape. “I understand this is rather unusual.”

Vaguely, Daehyun wonders if it’s possible to committee murder through wishful thinking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “I know what he said. What does it mean?” is a line from the movie that is too good to pass up tbh


	4. Chapter 4

Moon takes Daehyun out to a local McDonalds after both bosses dismissed them. Or rather, Daehyun corrects himself mentally, he is allowing this assassin to buy him a burger because he is _in no way_ intimidated. Not at all.

He tries to subtly roll his shoulder without wincing. He fails.

Daehyun has a smile for every situation, crafted to slip him into and out of crisis with the practice ease of a professional liar, scoundrel and general all round con artist. Therefore it is incredibly frustrating that Moon Jongup appears only to have one smile, and it is one that is _impossible_ to read. The man uses smiles like punctuation. It’s just there to fill space between words. Hi – _smile,_ two McDoubles please - _smile._ Do you take credit – _smile?_

It’s so bland and devoid of intention that Daehyun’s fingertips itches to rip into the serene expression in front of him just to see if it will contort into something more interesting.

“So you’re a spy. Is it a good career?” Moon asks him, ripping into his own burger with apparent relish.

“What kind of question is that?”

“Just trying to make polite conversation.” 

“Well, you’re a hitman for Huang, is that a good career?” Daehyun fires back.

“It’s ok.” A pause. “You would know.”

Daehyun puts on his best love-me-because-I’m-adorable grin. “Oh? For what reason would I know?”

“I understand you used to be a thief, I imagine you are well aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the criminal life.”

“Oh dear.” Daehyun chuckles, making sure his expression stays static “I’m honoured that you took the trouble to get to know my history, Mr. Moon.”

Moon nods, and smiles. 

“And while we are on the subject of histories,” Daehyun continues, friendliness oozing out of every pore. “I guess you are a _sunbae-nim_ , since you were employed by the government years before I was – ah – 'recruited'. “

It’s gratifying to see Moon’s expression shuttering closed. The man isn’t a spy, isn’t a scoundrel. He _was_ a solider by trade and is an assassin by choice, and people like that learn to keep expressions off their faces when provoked. That’s fine by Daehyun. When it comes to people, sometimes a blank page is the easiest to read. He continues, “I did have an adventurous youth, I admit, and I am no fan of my employers, but a dishonourable discharge? You must have been quite a troublemaker.”

Youngjae had shoved the file on the mysterious Nose Dot into Daehyun’s hands only minutes before he set off for the meeting at the karaoke bar. He had skimmed the very interesting reports barely four minutes before he met Moon Jongup a second time. Daehyun hadn’t expected the information to become useful so soon, but he’s grateful for the chance to gain the upper hand in their fated to be doomed partnership. He mentally reminds himself to buy something nice for Youngjae and his genius hacking skills later.

Jongup’s face is still carefully blank. The tension is so thick and heavy Daehyun is surprised the cheap plastic table between them isn’t creaking with the pressure. His fingertips still tingle – to break skin ; to break – something, _anything_ – so he pushes on with deadly cheerfulness:

“And _then_ you betray your own country for a Chinese mob boss, and to what end? Only to be shipped back to play teamwork with little old me.”

Adrenalin courses through Daehyun a sliver of a second after fleeting, incandescent rage ripples past Jongup’s wide open features - rage so delightfully pure and beautiful that for the first time since Daehyun’s arrest – he feels _alive._

Moon Jongup chew up the last bite of his burger carefully, swallows, and says “I think we should go meet Choi Junhong and explain the situation to him.” as if he didn't hear anything Daehyun just said. 

Moon’s smile is as bland as ever, but his fingers crushes the burger wrapper so tight someone can use it as a golf ball.

Daehyun, nerves singing hotly, smiles with all his teeth.

“Yes. Let’s.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually wrote a lot of the end of this story awhile back, but it appears that I lost the file. So slow, slow updates as I get this story back on track again.


End file.
